“The last words I heard from him were, ‘Don’t worry, Rescue 1122 is here, they will save us,’” says relative of a victim. PHOTO: AFP
Hafiz Muhammad Talha was at home when he heard that the LDA plaza was on fire. The 19-year-old immediately called his father Talib Hussain, a stenographer at the Lahore Development Authority, who was stuck in the building.
Talha, a student, rushed to the scene and saw his father perched on a window sill at the seventh floor of the building. He made several more calls to his father, in between fielding calls from concerned relatives.
“The last words I heard from him were, ‘Don’t worry, Rescue 1122 is here, they will save us,’” Talha says, speaking to The Express Tribune at Services Hospital. Shortly after the fifth and final phone call, Talha saw his father plunge to his death, one of at least eight who died in Thursday’s fire.
Talha says he could see his father screaming for help, but neither the helicopter hovering around the building nor the rescue teams below could reach him. Rescuers held a life net for him to jump onto. First, Talib Hussain pushed out Muhammad Asif from the window, though he feared the man was already dead from smoke inhalation, says Talha. “He said that he had to try to save him,” he says.
As rescuers removed the limp and lifeless Asif from the net, Hussain jumped too. “They moved the net seconds before he jumped,” says Talha. Hussain landed on the exhaust of an air-conditioning unit, and died at the scene.
Ganga Ram Hospital
Shams Alam, personal assistant to the LDA director general, and Syed Waseem, another LDA employee, were rescued from the ninth floor of the plaza via an emergency ladder.
“It was an agonising wait, watching rescuers try to get the ladder aligned to the building and reaching up to him,” said his son Naveed Alam, speaking at Ganga Ram Hospital, where his father was being treated for smoke inhalation. “I think the operation was very slow.”
“Rescue 1122 clearly needs more equipment for such rescue operations,” said Syed Aqeel, Waseem’s brother. He was grateful that his brother was safe, but sad at the deaths of some of his colleagues.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2013.
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It should be noted that in most of the world where high rise buildings are constructed, strict building codes require fire resistant dedicated stair wells with fire exits marked on every floor! A quick trip to any of the gulf countries would see that those building codes are strictly enforced for the good of the public. If such codes are lax or non-existent in Pakistan (or easily avoided by bribes and corruption), then some news organization(s) needs to survey as many new buildings in major cities to see if even basic fire codes have been followed during construction AND PUBLISH THE RESULTS!
@ Breaking Bad. Sorry my friend but I must disagree with you.
Punjab government clearly prioritized the projects that can be "seen" and "look" beautiful. There is obviously benefit to these projects. But a smart government would spend resources on improving the systems. Like emergency response, police, health etc. Punjab government has not much to show in these areas.
There is widespread sense of insecurity in all cities including Lahore. Same Patwari system is in place. I would rather feel safe and have a sense of justice first before driving on a beautiful underpass.
@Syed Zaki: If punjab govt would have spent all their money on rescue 1122 then you would have blamed them of not building the roads. The whole country is gradually developing and this is another learning experience. Everything is not about politics my friend.
Y'all can say whatever you want about the Punjab gov't and lacking facilities for 1122 and they would be true. but the sad fact is that there were no fire escapes, no different exit points in the building. once trapped. you're trapped and can only hope and wait that someone can and will rescue you. we need to change our building standards and codes. its not dissimilar to the factory fire in Karachi a few months back. Speaking of which, i haven't heard any updates on that...
the incidents reminds me the horrific story of 9/11 ... similar to Hussain thousand's
suffocated and jumped from 70....90th story of WTC........
these incidents r very disturbing......innocent people dying in most horrific manner ...
my condolences to the bereaved family...
Sad, so many people died, got injured for nothing. The LDA building has no safety measures in case of emergency, how will it develop te city. Look how ill eqquiped we are in case of any emergency situation, even in LAhore and Billions and billions are spent on luxuries like Metro bus and on buying votes through laptops. Sham on Shehbaz shareef. You are a culprit.
@Maria Z
Just for the record, PML Q established and invested in 1122, all the money which was invested on the roads for their advertisement and vote bank in the last year only for luxurt by PML N could have been invested on rescue teams, health and education sector.
@Javeria Mahmood: Yes, really!
If they had worked on providing better rescue equipment they could've kept their vote bank intact. They dont deserve to get reelected. My prayers for the deceased and their families. This is a horrible tragedy and all because someone prob wants their dirty deeds Kay records destroyed. Allah hum sab ki khair karay. Ameen.
The irony is that this tragedy happened in the Lahore Development Authority building, which aims to improve and develop the city but did not have the infrastructure and resources to control such a tragedy, let alone prevent it. Cowasjee was right when he described our nation as "Gatar bana nahi sakte aur atom bomb banate hain, cement mein bajri ziada miladete hain aur imaarat pe mashAllah likh dete hain ke ab unhe Khuda bachaiga". Words are meaningless in the face of such carelessness and tragic state of affairs. May Allah grant peace to the deceased, patience to their loved ones, speedy and full recovery to the injured and freedom from such injustice and ill-treatment for us all (Aameen).
@Syed Zaki:
Oh really?
@Syed Zaki: as much as you would hate me for saying this, but fires dont occur everyday.
you know this mentality of being a na-shukeri has lead us to this. unforseen catastrophes and everyday commute problems should not be weighted in the same panel. Please.
Not that I am a PML (N) supporter, but they actually DID something about the issue------ having SOMETHING is better than nothing, had they not invested in Rescue 1122, we'd have watched it all burn, and you know what's sad, even then YOU would have had no issue putting the blame on someone.
Only Allah Subhan Wa Taala can save us, it is only unto Him that we seek help..
If only the Punjab government had spent a couple of millions to equip 1122 with better apparatus, who knows, those who died in this tragic incident, might have had lived. Sadly a big chunk of Punjab budget was spent on construction of roads that were not in much need currently.
I would say that those who died in this fortuity were the victims of "Pre Poll Rigging" by the PMLN. They spent Billions in Lahore just to keep their Vote Bank intact and paid no attention to their civic duties.